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Message: [QUOTE="heresjohnny88, post: 153598, member: 1604"] I like Jame Dixon a lot as a coach, and I think he gets a ton out of sub-par talent, but does anyone else think it's time for him to re-evaluate the way he teaches the game? I'll give two reasons: 1) If I'm a recruit sitting at home last night watching that Cuse-Pitt game, doesn't Cuse look 100x more attractive to me? Let's see...I can either go to Lob City east or Clutch and Grab U. JB deserves a ton of credit for letting his kids play over the years, and that hasn't changed with this team. Our style of play looks VERY enticing to a high schooler who wants to be able to play his own game. Dixon, on the other hand, doesn't seem to allow his players this kind of freedom. And therefore Pitt never seems to land top recruits, except for this past year with Khem Birch, and we all know how that's worked out. Pitt should honestly be bringing in Top 20 classes every year, but yet they rarely do. There's a reason for everything. 2) Pitt's style of play kills them in the tournament. Dixon seems to have an amazing grasp of what officials will/won't call in Big East play, and he undoubtedly tells his players each practice what they can/can't get away with (push off's going for rebounds, hand-checking, etc). And this has worked in Big East play, mostly because they let you get away with more. But in the tournament, when games are called tighter, this style fails miserably. Butler might be the ONLY team I've seen over the last 10 years that have attempted to play this "Pitt style" defense in the tournament with success. But that is the exception, and not the rule. It seems that Villanova a couple years back started to play this style of basketball as well, and how's that worked out for them? Like I've said, I think Jamie Dixon is a very smart coach and you cannot overlook the amount of in-conference success he has had...but maybe it's time he re-evaluated his coaching a bit. [/QUOTE]

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